You get what You ask for

That’s especially true when asking people for ideas. The better you explain what you are looking for, the better armed people will be to describe their ideas.

Clients always ask us how they should describe their topics. It’s pretty basic but nonetheless a very valuable thing to get right. We usually ask clients the questions below. Here’s an examples from our client Visma:

What’s the challenge?

Why are good ideas for this challenge needed?

How would you like an idea to be described?

Which criteria should a good idea fulfil?

What will happen to the best ideas?

“The focal point of our new strategy is to start developing custom smartphone apps to our clients.”

“We feel that this is a natural extension of our business of supplying tailor made IT solutions. The hope is that your new ideas on custom smartphone apps will increase our turnover and create more value for our clients.”

When describing your idea first write a catchy headline then write a short pitch that sums up what your idea is all about. Now describe your idea by using these headlines: Who Needs What? My Solution, Estimated Price and Potential Profit.

All incoming ideas will be matched against the following three criteria:

The 10 best ideas will be developed into actual business cases, which will be presented to the clients involved. Also “the best idea”, “the most profitable idea” and “the most constructive comment” will be rewarded with an iPad.

Read our case on Visma and learn how they went from strategic decisions to tangible ideas